Question - How about this one: I presided at a dinner with wine, but I had no corkscrew. How can I remove a cork without a corkscrew? I finally cut through the cork with a keyhole saw and got bits of cork in the wine. Not good. D.H., Billerica, Mass.
Answer - In a pinch, try to track down your son's Swiss army knife; it has a corkscrew. Those Swiss army men were no fools, you know. How about just knocking off the bottleneck by hitting it on the table edge? No? No.
So here's how: Find a wood dowel or piece of wood the same size as the cork's diameter. Take off the foil, and drive the cork all the way in with the dowel and a hammer. Light blows will do it. The cork may be in the bottle, making the wine pour weirdly, but that is a minor manner; you will not have any cork shards.
If you do get any cork shards in the bottle, strain it as you pour. Everyone will salute you.
Question: My house is 18 months old and some drains are clogged, others are slow. The builder can't figure it out. I think the cleaning lady dropped something. How can I clear them? V.V., Randolph, Mass.
Answer: Something dropped in a toilet drain is the main cause of clogging and slowing it down. The cure is to reach into the toilet and retrieve whatever is there. The handyman did this once and came up with a comb. You might come up with a rubber ducky or similar toy, but chances are that only one item is down there. Wash your hands thoroughly after this trick; wash with rubbing alcohol, and wash again.
Slow drains are another matter, but should not occur in a house 18 months old. Sometimes the pipes build up inside the drains with oil, grease, hair and other guck, slowing the flow. The solution is to pour a cup of bleach down the drain, let it sit in the trap for an hour or more. Then flush. An enzyme type drain cleaner may help clean out that guck. As a follow-up, clean the drain with a plumber's snake.
The mystery of the pipe in the chimney is solved. Jim Taylor of Beverly, Mass. wanted to know the origins of a 2-inch, metal pipe sticking out of the chimney in his 100-year-old house. It is parallel to the chimney and goes through the chimney, from inside to the attic. The handyman thought it was a vent from a room to the chimney, which is illegal today, not then.
The handyman was half right. A whole slew of plumbers, architects and other professionals called or wrote to set the handyman fully right.
Retired contractor Guilford Tobey of Marblehead, Mass., gave the most complete explanation: "The stub in the chimney is all that is left of one of those old toilet vents. We used to come across them in remodeling. The toilet was usually one of those old jobs with a wood tank high on the wall, and would have a 2-inch hole in the bowl; the pipe would run from this hole up to the attic and into a chimney. The pipe was a vent for odors.
"I ran across one old gentleman who had one and his main complaint was that in winter there could be a fierce back-draft of icy air right where you did not want it! Anyway, we took out quite a few of them. Usually left the pipe in the walls but patched the hole in the wall and certainly the one in the chimney."
Thank you, Guilford Tobey, and also thanks to architect Allen C. Hill of Winchester, Mass., plumber M.L. Routier of Springfield, Mass., Howard E. Clapp of Westhampton, Mass., who remembers one when he was a kid, and others not listed.
Question: I am getting a lot of dust in a house I just bought. It is heated with hot water, but the dust still builds up. What can I do about it? J.C., Winchester, Mass.
Answer: Nothing, unless you burn a lot of candles. Dust settles more in winter; the air in the house is much stiller than in summer, when open windows and fans keep air - and dust - moving.
I remember a product on the market called Endust. I think it was simply a charged cloth that picked up dust and held it until you were ready to shake it out outdoors. Such cloths made dusting easier and quicker, but will not prevent more dust.
Question: Where can I find a sash lock that will hold a window partially open and secure? Harold Driscoll, Tewksbury, Mass.
Answer: Renovator's Supply sells a sash pin, one that fits through the side frame of the lower sash and into the side frame of the upper sash. The pin holds securely and out of reach of prying hands. The item is 29000; call (413) 659-2211.
Question: A lot of the clapboards on my 3-year-old house are cracked along their length. What's wrong, and how can I fix them? Sue Hiniker, Bedford, Mass.
Answer: If the clapboards are red cedar, they might be Grade A instead of vertical grain; while Grade A is a good clapboard, it is not as good as vertical grain and can split more readily.
You can caulk the splits, then repaint or restain with a solid color latex stain. If your stain is semitransparent, caulking won't work because semitransparent stain will not cover the caulking. Short of that, replacing is your only alternative. If you do, buy vertical grain clapboards.